Pipeline intentional omissions

The thing I hate about LTEs like this one is what they omit. The writer of this LTE talks about 3 pipelines that he lives by, saying “I live by three ‘pipelines.’ The first most folks know as U.S. Highway 10. It carries a ton of traffic, especially on weekends, enabling thousands bent on enjoying what Northern Minnesota has to offer. It has a huge economic impact. According to the U of MN Extension Service, the combined travel and tourism annual revenues from June of 2007 to May of 2008 in Aitkin, Cass, Crow Wing, and Hubbard counties alone amounted to $713,699,246 and the state realized $326,376,889 in state revenues.” Having lived my entire life within a mile of Highway 10, I can’t dispute that lots of tourists use Highway 10. Having said that, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Highway 10 also is used by tons of truckers bringing tons of products to the Twin Cities and beyond.

FYI- I-94 is used more for transporting products to market. One of the products delivered on I-94 and Highway 10 is crude oil. Those highways deliver product to the refineries Flint Hills Resources in Rosemount, MN. It’s idiotic to think that stopping the pipeline will cause oil companies to take those wells out of production. That isn’t happening, which means that oil will be transported by a less safe way.

Which brings me to the third “pipeline” that I live by, the Mississippi River. The Enbridge pipeline will cross it twice. Can you imagine what impact a spill would have on the 1.8 million people who rely on it for clean drinking water?

This zealot thinks that technology doesn’t exist. Either that or he thinks that oil companies can’t wait to pollute. Either way, this zealot apparently isn’t in touch with reality.

If the environmentalists stop this pipeline, the DFL will be hurt politically for a generation. They will have stabbed the DFL’s blue collar base in the back for the umpteenth time. The DFL will have looked the other way for the umpteenth time, too. Then the DFL will try to win back their votes by expressing solidarity for working families’, many of whom won’t be employed thanks to the DFL’s pandering to the environmentalists.

Here’s hoping the environmentalists will enjoy working with GOP majorities in the Minnesota House and Senate and a reform-minded GOP governor.